Tag: Website

Joomla Website SEO Tips and Tricks

Hello,

I’d like to write a SEO tips and tricks article. I’m sure my SEO techniques work well enough but if you can improve on them please let me know. Everyone knows that the real key to good SEO after your site is ‘optimised’ correctly is new content but here are my top tips for Joomla website SEO. I hope you find them useful:

Keyword Research

Use Google to help you find keywords associated with your business. When you type words in the search bar Google suggests other keywords that you could use. Google Keyword Tool is a great resource for researching keywords for your business. It allows you to analyse a word to see how many people search that word on a monthly basis in a regional area.

Personally I thinks it’s better to optimise for keyword phrases rather than individual words, as people are more likely to specify their searches to ‘web designer Melbourne’ rather than just ‘web designers’.

Google prefers to show its customers more localised returns by displaying the local search returns in a map in the right hand column. When you scroll down the map actually goes over the paid advertisements.

Google Places

If you haven’t got a Google Account it’s worth creating one to access all of the tools Google has to offer. For your account page you can create a Google Places listing for your business. You can add business hours, payments terms and the categories you want to be found for and it’s free. Everything counts.

Browser page titles

Each web page should have it’s own unique browser page titles and be no more than 70 characters long. Include keywords in your browser page title. In Joomla the browser page title is either controlled by the Menu or the Title of your page/item. If you are creating a menu item to link to a single page you can control the browser page title by clicking Menus.

Select the link to edit

Click ‘Parameters System and enter the keyword rich page title in the Page Title field.

If you are viewing an article which is in a category the browser page title is taken from the title of the page you are viewing.

Tags

Ensure each page has H1, H2 and p tags. Remember to include keywords in your page titles. When I’m setting up a Joomla site, I prefer to use K2 for creating my pages/items and write my page titles on the page using the H1 tag. There should be only one instance of a H1 tag on the page otherwise it looks like spamming.

Images

Every image should have an ‘alt’ and ‘title’ description so that the search engines know what it is. Ensure your images are optimised before uploading them to your website to ensure faster loading times.

Interlinking

This is easier to do once you have a few pages on your site. When writing articles link keywords in your text to other relevant pages – a bit like Wikipedia. This makes it much easier for people to get around your website with having to go up to the menu and drill down for info. Internal links also rank as well as some external links to your site.

Backlinks

When looking for backlinks sites you really want PR1 sites. These are Page Rank 1 sites that allow you to write on their blogs or create an account where you can add a backlink. Remember the anchor text is the most important part of the backlink as it should be descriptive and include your keywords. The link would probably work better if linking directly to the page the anchor text refers to.

Example: Web Designers Melbourne

Ideally you want your backlink to be placed on an ‘important’ page on a well ranked site. Don’t use backlink farms. Your website will take a serious nosedive if you do. Create the backlinks slowly over time and be patient.

SEO Friendly URL’s in Joomla

When creating your Joomla site it’s best to use the Search Engine Friendly URLS. If you’re server is Apache you will need to change a file name on your server. In the root folder locate htaccess.txt and change it to.htaccess

If a.htaccess already exists I usually delete it and rename the htaccess.txt and use that.

When you have done that login into your Joomla website and go to:

Site / Global Configuration

Ensure the ‘Site’ tab is selected and you will see the SEO settings on the right.

Search Engine Friendly URLs – Yes

Use Apache mod_rewrite – Yes

Add suffix to URLs – No

Press Save.

Now all of your URLs will have easy to read URLs.

Articles / Items

When writing an article (or Item in K2) you need to fill out the ‘Metadata Information’. The description box is the short description people see when searching pages in Google so write it well and concise. The ‘Keywords’ field is self explanatory. Add keywords and phrases separated by commas.

In the Robots field enter: ‘index, follow’

In the Author Field enter: Your name and keyword. It can’t hurt.

Don’t forget the H1, H2 and alt tags when writing your article.

Sitemap

When your site is ready you should create a sitemap.xml file. Google search xml sitemap creator and you’ll find a site to help you create one of these. When it’s complete download the sitemap.xml file to your computer and upload it to your server. Now login to your Google Account and click Webmaster Tools. Add your site to your Webmaster Tools

Submit your sitemap to Google

The best way to submit your site to Google is not through a Submit URL but through your webmaster tools. Click ‘Diagnostics’ in the left column. Then click ‘Fetch as Googlebot’. Here you can add the main him page and any other key pages on your site. Google will find your other pages but it’s good to let them know about your key pages.

Robots

Your site should have a robots.txt file that tells visiting search engine robots which pages they should look at.

This is mine as an example:

User-agent: *

Allow: /sitemap.xml

Allow: /index.php

Allow: /index.html

Allow: /index.htm

User-agent: *

Disallow: /akeeba-backups

Disallow: /cgi-bin

Disallow: /logs

Disallow: /plugins

Disallow: /tmp

Disallow: /xmlrcpc

Disallow: /administrator

Disallow: /cache

Disallow: /editor

Disallow: /help

Disallow: /includes

Disallow: /language

Disallow: /media

Disallow: /modules

Disallow: /templates

Disallow: /installation

Google Analytics Code

Log into your Google Account and go to Google Analytics. Create the right analytical code and put this code in your index.php file just before the tag. This way you can track the search terms people are using when arriving at your site along with lots of other information.

Submission to lots of Search Engines

If you want to submit to lots of search engines a good site to do this is http://www.addme.com. Simply fill out the details and away you go. Some submissions need to be confirmed.

Business Directories

Directories can help with backlinks to your site as well as pushing people to your site from those directories. Do a quick search for local business directories and submit to them today.

Keyword Density

The Addme website also has a great ‘Keyword Density’ checker. Here you can analyse your sites keyword density and adjust your article writing accordingly to what you want to optimise for. Your keywords need to feature for 10% of the length of your article. Ie 10 instances for every 100 words. You just have to be clever in the way you write so it doesn’t sound contrived.

I think that is it. If you have any other top SEO tips please let me know.

Cheers,

Neil.

What is W3C Validation and Why Does My Website Need It?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web and is headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (the man credited with “inventing” the Internet).

W3C’s sole goal is to ensure that the World Wide Web and Websites all work as well as they possibly can. Their guidelines are extremely strict and are purely based on the concept of “accessibility for all”. Whilst it is not official (Google keep the criteria they use for ranking websites a closely guarded secret) it is widely agreed amongst website developers that following these guidelines will help your website list higher on the search engines.The W3C themselves state “Following these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly.”

Therefore if you wish to compete effectively on the Internet then your business needs a website that the W3C approve of – one which is web compliant.

You should test websites against these guidelines using W3C’s free online validation service -To do this you simply enter the web address of the website you want to check.

If a website “validates” then the website complies with W3C’s guidelines. If it does not “pass” the validator will declare the errors and also any warnings. These errors and warnings can be used to identify the problems in the website’s coding so that a web developer can fix them. Often these are highly technical detailed descriptions which are unintelligible to a lay person.

From a developers point of view a W3C error report is very useful because it also includes a description on how to fix the problem in a way that should result in the website passing validation.

Errors

The most common error declared by the W3C Validator is know as a “Syntax Error”. HTML and XHTML are languages used within the coding of the website and W3C produce an approved list of commands (words that are used in the language). If a website developer has used a non-approved command (word) then a Syntax Error is produced. The website may still appear to work and display properly but it does not achieve the levels of accessibility required by the W3C.

Warnings

Unlike errors, warnings are produced when the W3C validator is unable to make sense of the coding the developer has used in the website. It is sometimes the case that the commands used are so different from the list of approved HTML and XHTML commands that the W3C are unable to give the developer advice on how to correct the problem. Even more seriously, this could mean that the website has the potential to crash or not function properly.

This guide is a relatively simplistic overview of an extremely complex and highly technical area usually reserved for well qualified website developers. It is therefore important that we bring to your attention some further details about W3C guidelines that may, on occasion, also be relevant.

Levels of Validation

There are actually different levels of validation and all of our own websites conform to at least level 1 of the Guidelines. You can also work to higher levels if you want to, which may include providing visitors with the ability to increase the size of the font on the website to make it more legible. You can also ensure your website is “screen reader” compatible (screen readers give the website a ‘voice’ and read the content of the site to the visitor).

Content Management Systems and Validation

Many websites now support the use of a Content Editor (also known as a Content Management System) which enable people with little to no web development skills to create and manage content on their website quickly and easily.

This means that what was once the preserve of those with considerable technical expertise is now open to anyone with basic computer skills.

Content Editors, do, however, have a very tough job on their hands as they have take all the raw text, images, links, tables, bullet lists, etc. that you throw at them and by using lots of formulas and processes, convert this raw data into HTML and/or XHTML code that is approved by the W3C.

Whilst this is easy for a web developer to do, because they have prior knowledge of what is and what isn’t “valid” code, it is very difficult for an automated system to do and often leads to shortfalls. For example, about 95% of validation errors on our websites originate from a content editor. Much of this can be avoided by not cutting and pasting copy directly from Word for Windows into the Content Editor.

This is because Word for Windows contains huge amounts of hidden information that can interfere with the HTML and/or XHTML code on the website.

We always recommend that you first cut and paste from Word into a more simple word processor such as Notepad. You can then re-cut and paste from Notepad into the Content Editor and avoid many validation errors. This is perfectly normal and an issue that is often experienced by many website designers across the world.

It is therefore important that whenever you or your client add or change content on a website you also check that it still validates. It it doesn’t, then your website designer should be able to fix it for you.

SEO Tips to Get Your Website to the Top of Search Engines

When it comes to the success of digital marketing and finding new customers via the web, keyword optimization is one of the most important tools you can bet on. Keyword optimization or keyword research is the act of researching, analysing and selecting the best word or concept of great significance to your product, services or campaign in order to target and drive traffic from search engines such as Google to your website and other digital platforms.

Getting your website or blog on the first page of search engines can be a daunting task if you do not understand the fundamentals of optimization. Although this tutorial is not guaranteeing you the first place in major search engines, it does point out what one needs to do to be in the Search Engine Optimization game.

It is much easier than you think and this article is to guide, help and provide you with the basic and key for successful search engine optimization:

Step 1. Choose the right keywords

It is tough to be the best at everything and that includes Keyword Optimization. The first step of reaching the top of search results is identifying the right keywords. It can either be a single or multiple words or entire phrases. As you might already be aware of, most searches on the internet are made in the form of a question. Therefore, before you start writing down the keywords, you need to decide which keywords you want to focus on. These are the words people would type into the search engines in order to find your page, blog, website or product.

It is very essential that the word you choose as the keyword is broad enough for lot of people to search for on the internet, but narrow enough that you have a decent chance of getting a high search rank for it on the search engines and results.

For example, the word “shoe” is way too general. However, “Where can I find cheap shoes online” is a pretty good one. Similarly, the word “Europe” is way too general and Wiki sites will normally dominate these top spots. So, “the best holiday destination in Europe” is a much better phrase to focus on.

Here are my top tips for choosing the right Keywords:

1. Start with customers

Think about who your target audience or customers are. What are they likely to type into the search bar when they are looking for answers where your services can help them? Why not ask existing customers what they would search for?

2. Weigh up the competition

Although it is important for you to choose words that many of your target audience might be typing into search engines, they should not be words that bigger companies with the most muscles and bigger budget will compete for.

3. Use Google tools

Guess not only. Google has several good tools which can aid you find what is popular to search.

On Google Trends, a public web facility based on Google Search engine, shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages including a list of popular searches. You can also enter keywords and see how popular they are, compared with other phrases and ideas on similar terms – in order to choose the one that most are looking for.

You can also find keywords using Google’s ad tool AdWords. You do not necessary have to advertise, you can just create an account and select using the “Keyword Planner” under the “Tools” menu.

Step 2. Customise Your Content

Once you have successfully chosen your keywords, there are a few other things you need to do in order get your site ranked high on search engines. One of such things is content creation. You have to create and distribute relevant and valuable content (such as speech, writing, photograph or any of the various arts) that attracts and engages your well-defined target audience. Content marketing helps us to attract new customers and build loyalty with existing customers.

For existing customers, this could also mean they take part of the relevant content that creates additional sales by learning more about your offer, and is more expensive products/ services than they have done previously. The following are few tips to consider during content creation:

1. Working actively with texts

Use keywords in the title and preamble of all the pages. Also, include the keywords in the body, the much higher up it is in the text, the better it is for your ranking.

However, be careful not to use your keywords too much. Google may interpret your site as a nonsense page which is only trying to attract traffic and you go down in search results. A rule of thumb is that your content should feel natural and interesting. Which of course is also important for your visitors.

2. Do not forget your photos!

Rename even your photos with your relevant keywords. This will make it possible for search engines index them and you can get hit even in image search. If you have the opportunity to enter an alternative text for each image, do not let go of such an opportunity.

Step 3. Get visits and links from others

The most important thing for search engines is to deliver good and relevant results, remember that’s their primary business. Therefore, priority is given to websites that Search engines deems others rate high or think is good. An example is sites with links and many visitors who stay long to engage with the site. Therefore, this is really important to:

1. Make sure to get a lot of visits to the page

Ask family and friends to visit your website. Get the link or URL out there as often as possible, for example, you make a video, put it up on YouTube and the links there – but incorporate all the content on your site and link to it there.

2. Ask others to link to your site

Ask friends, business partners or customers to link to you, perhaps in exchange for a link back or share interesting tips in your field and let others get put up pieces of contents with a link to you.

3. Share your site on social media

Sharing your website and contents on social media (not forgetting Google+ Google for obvious reasons) is extremely important. It can provide visits to the website, more traffic, attention and higher rankings

4. Get visitors to share

Get others to share your site and contents on social media, using “share” buttons. AddThis is a one of the free tools allows you to instantly share or bookmark pages with one easy-to-use tool. AddThis can also get statistics on how much your content is shared.

Step 4. Revise the technical

Even how your site is built technically is important for your rankings. Here are some things you can do:

1. Use Google Webmaster Tools (Now Google Search Console)

The Google Search Console (aka Google webmaster) is an amazing tool which offers many tools that will aid you to thoroughly analyse your site. From this analysis, you can work on problem areas to make your site rank better on Search engines especially Google

2. Make Your Site Mobile Friendly,

With a good percentage of the world’s population owning mobile devices these days, it makes sense to make sure that your site is mobile friendly. Mobile users also expects good mobile experience when they visit site.

If your site is not mobile friendly, it may rank lower in searches from mobile phones. Google recently Google released a significant new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that’s designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results, therefore you can’t go wrong with this offer.

3. Make sure the page is fast

A site that takes a long time to load will rank lower on search engines. Google has indicated in the past that site and page speeds is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages.

Page speed is also important to user experience, the slower your site/page speed the more likely you will have high bounce rate and lower average time on your site. Some of the great tools which can help you with your site speed is Google Pagespeed Insights and GTmetrix. This are tools that empowers you to make decisions that increase the performance of your website.

Step 5. Use Web Analytics Tools

Use analytics to measure the outcome of your efforts or to determine which areas of your site are doing well. Google Analytics offers free and enterprise analytics tools to measure website, app, digital and offline data to gain customer insights.

Example: Google Analytics enables you to track the visitors to your store, and generates reports that will help you with your marketing.

Under the “acquisition” in Google Analytics select “all traffic” -> “Channels” -> “organic search” so you can under the “keyword” to see which keywords drive the most traffic and the “source” which search engine. Using Google webmaster tools, you have access to them in Google Analytics under “acquisitions” -> “search engine optimization”.

Step 6. Use Google AdWords

Business regardless of size, wants to be found on the first page of Google. Getting seen by customers at the exact time they are looking for your information, products, services, deals or location is intent marketing (marketing based on someone intending to find your products), and it’s profitable.

Many businesses use Google AdWords to archive these by creating highly effective advertising campaigns to market their products and services, drive traffic to their website, and ultimately, increase sales.

I hope this article has given you an in-depth view of keyword optimization and you find one or more of the above tips useful.

Do I Need Responsive Web Design for My Website?

The term “responsive web design” refers to websites that change and adapt their appearance for optimum viewing on all screen sizes, tablets, smartphones, ipods, kindles along with desktop and laptop computer screens. Occasionally, in the digital arts industry, it is called “fluid design”, “adaptive website design” or “RWD”. Unresponsive websites do not change to fit different screen sizes, which means they can be difficult to navigate and look at on smaller devices.

Desktop sales have been surpassed by mobile sales already, and most digital media education sources predict that mobile web use will overtake desktop use by 2014. Hence, it only seems logical that desktop search will be overtaken by mobile search soon as well. Sixty percent of web users say that they would be more inclined to buy from mobile optimized websites. Therefore, businesses that depend on SEO would have a lot of sense to start making the move towards mobile friendly sites, and responsive site designs specifically. Especially as the new Google algorithm updates now frown upon separate mobile only sites. Such as those with a.mobi in the url. More and more, new websites are built using responsive design methods to eradicate the requirement for standalone mobile websites. Also, this decision dramatically improves the user experience. This leads to more customer interaction and sales, as prospective customers are not alienated by tiny text and difficult navigation.

To make responsive designs work, a media query is used to determine the screen size that the site is being accessed from. The script can detect all devices, whether they are tablets, laptops or smartphones. Then, it uses CSS to show the website in a suitable format. Images can be re-sized accordingly to fit on screens that are smaller. The text is made bigger and the menus can switch to a variety of different dropdown formats, as opposed to the mostly standard horizontal display.

The benefits of using this kind of design, compared to setting up a mobile version of your website that is completely separate from your original site, are obvious. Whenever you update your website, it will updated for every device and display correctly on every screen. You only have to update in one location, where with a separate mobile site would require a separate location requiring updating as well. Often, your websites will be accessed from a tablet. If you have a two separate sites, a mobile and a desktop version, it is anybodies guess which version of the site tablet users will be seeing. With responsive design you get to control (mostly) what every screen size will be viewing.

Several companies provide both fluid design and mobile design for websites. However, RWD methods are constantly improving, so there appears little point in having a standalone mobile website. The only time when you might want a separate site, would be if you prefer to advertise differently to laptop or desktop users, compared to how you would advertise

to mobile users. For instance, a fast food company might wish to target individuals on the go with an instant special offer, but display their upcoming promotions and menu to laptop users. Nonetheless, in many cases, a website will cater to all users in an identical manner, thus a responsive design is the preferred option.

In the fast approaching future, all websites should have responsive designs, as users will come to expect it. Therefore, in a couple of years, businesses that build unresponsive websites will have to pay for a new site to make up to their users the lack in their website. Consequently, before starting any new website design projects, it would be advisable to learn more about the cost and advantages of adaptive designs.

Free E-Commerce Website Using Google Sites and PayPal

I started off with the goal of making a website that has no on going costs, minimal transaction fees and low maintenance. The choice of having all features integrated into the one website? or do I manage the website and let a third party do the financial transactions? security is a key to answering this question, a third party will be my option. Firstly I did allot of research into free web hosting solutions, benefits, security and 100% uptime. The list got down to a few, I tested them and decided on Google sites which ticked all the boxes. The main disadvantage is also an advantage, it locks down allot of code, making it harder to implement heaps of features but increases security immensely.

I have decided on my web hosting, now look at payment systems. The customer would have to be redirected to a secure website, the data passed between my website and the shopping cart had to be minimal as this can be hijacked or changed. I looked at allot of cool Java and php based shopping carts but in the end, all still sent across code that could easily be changed by someone smart enough. PayPal and Google Checkout are the main players, being in a Australia, Google Checkout was ruled out so I worked with PayPal.

Google sites is very easy use, first you give the website a name, choose a template and play around with the formatting a bit. Add a picture of the item you want to sell, then put it in the back of your mind for a bit, we now head over to PayPal.

Create yourself a PayPal account and change the account type to Business at http://www.PayPal.com. PayPal gives you the option of making pre-made buttons that are attached to your account and because no dollar amount or numbers of items passes between the sites, it is very secure.

Creating a PayPal Button:

Profile >> My Saved Buttons >> Create New Button

Select Yes; create an “Add to Cart” button.

Give the item a name, if you have multiple of the same items, include an item number.

Choose a price

Additional Options:

Postage Weight or Postage cost for that item.

Track Inventory, PayPal can stop people purchasing items if you run out of stock.

Once the button has been created, select the tab e-mail, copy the code and keep this for later.

Go back to your Google sites web page and add an image that your going to use as the “add to cart” button. This can be the one provided earlier by PayPal or you can choose to make your own image. Make sure you happy with the size, Google sites gives you the option of small, medium or large, but if you want something different, it can be changed in the HTML code option.

select the image, then click up the top on the link button. This is where you link your button to the PayPal, choose link to external website and paste in the PayPal link you kept from earlier.

My finished result is:

http://www.dollsclothes.com.au

Choosing The Right Photos For Your Website & Online Brand

How smart companies use images to boost their online presence

You might think for an agency that does so much web design and blogging, we’re just writing and geeking out on code all day.

And that’s partly true – we do do a lot of writing and custom coding.

But part of being a good digital agency is understanding the role that visuals play, both in creating a website and fostering an online brand and presence.

Forget the old saying. Online, a picture is worth way more than a thousand words.

That’s why today we’re covering how to choose photos for your website and online marketing that will really pop and make potential clients remember you.

And don’t worry. Even if you don’t have the budget for a fancy photographer, there’s still plenty of ways to get great images for your website, which we’ll also cover below.

Using Images in Marketing

Humans are visual creatures, and that doesn’t magically change when we go online. That’s why using images for online brand marketing is critical.

Every image you share should invoke an emotion and represent your brand identity – whatever makes you, you. Sure, taglines and content are incredibly important (and critical if you want to rank on Google).

But images tap into and relay your uniqueness in an instant. In fact, neuroscientists at MIT have determined that it only takes 13 milliseconds to process an entire image.

So if you want to create a connection with your audience in an instant, then crisp, beautiful photos that represent your brand well are the way to go.

Today’s customers want to connect with authentic brands. The better you’re able to serve them stunning images that paint a picture, the more likely they are to become raving fans. And the more likely they are to become ambassadors for you.

In fact, a study from BuzzSumo found that articles using an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.

Clearly, images matter, and can dramatically improve your website content.

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READ: Is Your Business Brand Identity Memorable Enough?

When thinking of your product or service what comes to mind? What do people envision? What characteristics do they attach to what you provide? And does it stand out from your competitors?

When building a memorable business brand, these are important questions to consider; otherwise, you risk losing valuable business because your brand isn’t differentiated enough from others who are going after the same target audience as you.

Your brand should invoke an identity, an emotion, characteristics and something that makes you, you. This is where that differentiation comes into play – tapping into and relaying your uniqueness.

Read more on our website

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Importance of Images in Web Design

Given the fact that at least 38% of users will stop engaging with an unattractive website design, using attractive images in your website is a no-brainer.

But images do so much more for your website.

First, images on your website can improve your SEO.

When Google scans your website, it looks at all your content, including your images. So good, optimized images can improve your Google rankings.

In fact, website content with images gets 94% more views than content without. So if you want more traffic, you need to use more photos on your website.

Using images properly can also keep people on your website longer.

And the stakes are even higher if you run an ecommere website. According to this Kissmetrics study , 93% of buyers consider visual appearance to be the most important factor when making a purchase!

And like we’ve covered, images also keep users more engaged.

Remember that people are busy, and they tend to scan through websites. Breaking your text up with shorter paragraphs, and interspersed with interesting photos and infographics, can help make your website more accessible and user friendly

Of course, this only works if you’re using images properly. This means using only relevant and attractive images, with small file sizes. It’s also best to use images of people as much as possible.

And remember, one of the most important elements of using images on your website or other online efforts is to ensure that you only use photos which you own or have the right to use, which we cover next.

How To Choose Photos For Your Website

So how to actually choose photos for your website?

First, think about the first impression you want to give. Create a brand guide that includes your brand colours and fonts, but also what look and feel you want your imagery to portray. And decide what types of images should and should not appear.

Ultimately, you want to be using high-quality images that deliver purpose and meaning. And it’s critical you have the right to use them.

If you have the budget to work with a photographer – great! Be sure to work with one who is willing to learn about your brand guide and work closely with you to create just the right images. This is one time where it really pays to be picky.

And if you don’t have the budget to work with a photographer – great! There are so many options for great stock photography available now, which can be much more affordable, or even free.

For paid stock photos, we recommend Depositphotos, which we’ve used for years without a hitch.

And if you’re just starting out and need to stick to free photos, check out Unsplash, which has a large amount of beautiful stock photos that are free to use, without attribution or permissions, for all commercial and non-commercial purposes.

When choosing stock photos, you need to be even more careful about choosing images that represent your brand well. Try to avoid stock photos where people are looking directly at the camera, which tend to be a bit cheesier and less authentic.

Finally, remember that visual clutter is actually a bad thing. Try to focus on using a few great images, smartly arranged. A good web developer can help ensure your website looks great and converts well, using just the right combination of beautiful images, captivating written content, and well-placed calls-to-action.

The better you’re able to use photos in your website and online marketing, the better you’ll be able to connect with your audience.

My team helps small businesses create just the right brand, along with website design, SEO and digital marketing. Talk with us to get started with an attractive brand that showcases your company perfectly.

To your business success,

Susan

Choose a Domain Name For Your First Website

Business Domain Name Registration and Trademark Protection Domain name registration is an important step for any business. Almost all businesses need to be online even if only for PR. Sometimes we don’t have all the information in order to take a decision regarding a Domain Name.

What is a Domain Name?

  • Your Domain Name is your property on the Internet. It is the name of your space on Internet.
  • Every Domain Name contains two or more name components separated by periods.
  • The last part of the address, (com, net, org, us, ca, uk), is called the “Top Level Domain”.
  • The second part of the domain is what we call the “Second Level Domain”.

Examples of Second Level Domains are: com.uk, or on.ca. The Second Level Domains are a great way to organize geographically or functional the Domain Names, (on.ca for example is the SLD for Ontario – Canada).

Why do we need a domain name?

  • A domain name is needed when you want to be present on the web. It is a way to translate your server’s address into a nice looking, easy to remember address.
  • Marketing and PR are other two major reasons. You want to brand your Web Site and personalize it. A Domain Name is a great opportunity to do that.
  • Search Engine ranking is another reason. There is been a lot of discussions on this subject and it seems that Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. are taking in consideration the domain name of your website in their ranking algorithm and search results.
  • Trademark protection is also important these days and if you don’t use a domain name with your company’s name someone else will use it, and reap off the benefits.

How to choose a good domain name?

  • Use these guidelines when you are choosing your domain name:
  • Choose a name as short as possible. It is easier for your visitors to remember a short name.
  • It has to be related to your company name or to your products.
  • What TLD, (Top Level Domain), should I choose? Try to stick with the original designation of the TLD. For example,.com is for commercial institutions,.org is for noncommercial organizations, etc…

How Many Years Should I register my Domain Name?

The longer you register your Domain Name the better. Some search engines give you some extra points in their rankings if you register for longer periods. That means you are serious and you plan to be there for a long time. If you register for 5 years you get a great discount, most of the registrars give you the best discount for 5 years. However, if you register for more than 10 years, your investment might become wasted; the technology changes fast and we don’t know what the Domain Name Space will look like in 15 years.

How to choose my Registrar?

  • Your registrar is an important thing since you will have to deal with him a lot. The Registrar Market is constantly changing, however big registrars are the most likely to survive over time, which is critical for you as a domain name owner.
  • The Domain Name administration is not an easy task and sometimes involves technical knowledge.
  • Make sure you choose a good and established Registrar that offers you most of the features possible.
  • Good technical support is another key element.
  • Cost is probably one of the most important elements for many of us especially if it’s a starter website. But don’t try to go too cheap, because you will end up by paying more.

Setup Website: Setup Your Business for Success

Starting a business can be a very scary thing but if you are inadequately prepared, starting an Internet Business can be even more so. Where do I begin? What should I expect? How much should this cost? I hope to answer some of the common questions asked by business owners wanting to setup a website.

First you must register a domain name. This will be the address for your setup. Websites need to contain keywords but also need to be attractive to human readers, so do not get carried away by keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com domain names. Keywords do help, but you want a name that is able to be branded as well. I register all of my domains with godaddy.com. They start at around $8 a year for a regular .com registration but sometimes you can get a good discount if you sign up for another godaddy service such as private registration. This keeps your contact information hidden from the public. If you would like to see what kind of information is publicly available, do a Google search for Who Is when ever you get the chance.

The next task is to decide where you will host your site. The two most common types of hosting are Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Web Hosting. For most starter websites Shared Web Hosting should be sufficient, but larger websites should enjoy the added benefits of dedicated web hosting. Shared hosting is going to cost around 10.00 a month compared to dedicated hosting which can run around $75 or more a month. If you receive a large number of visitors a day, or have a fairly large database driven dynamic website, dedicated hosting is the only way to go. Most Search engine specialists will recommend a dedicated server over a shared server even for small websites due to the possibility that your site could theoretically be penalized for shady actions taken by other websites that share your sever and IP address. So if you choose to start off with shared hosting, shop around and make sure you will be sharing your sever with a reputable company that hosts reputable websites. Even though some companies offer webhosting for $3 or $4 dollars a month, it doesn’t mean it is a good buy. Spammers know where the cheap prices are, as they register them in bulk!

Now the fun part! The final task is the most challenging of all, the building of the website itself. You can outsource your web design with a website design company or you can opt to build it yourself. If you decide to build your own site, remember to practice common design recommendations like header tags and good text based navigation. Another important tip is to set a title, description and keyword tag in the head section of every page. A lot of people believe these tags are useless, but this is far from true. The title tag is the most important on page factor because it greatly affects ranking. The title tag is also important for enticing users to click on your listing as most search engines pull some of your listing information from the title tag. I try to keep my titles under 65 characters long. The description meta tag is also quite useful for ranking and can be quite a bit longer. Look at keeping your description under 250 characters, including spaces. I believe the keyword information is mainly used for categorization purposes. Just make a point to not repeat any words more than two or at the most three times or it may hurt you more than help.

Get Your WordPress Website on Page 1 of Google

Digital Marketing for WordPress Websites

If your search term is not right for your business, too competitive, or just a keyword that does not generate enough traffic, then you can be wasting your time. If you are inpatient and you do not do the market research, you can be hitting your head against a wall.

Digital Marketing for WordPress

Market research online is very easy, accessible, and honest. It’s unforgiving and available at your fingertips.

What are keywords?

In general terms, keywords are the words or phrases that people use to ask a question.

Free Tools for Market Research

This step is more often than not skipped because, let’s face it, this step is not sexy.

1. Google Keyword Tool

Google has tools that are free and that you can use to do market research. This tool allows you to tap into the database of the data that Google creates using AdWords. Google AdWords is a product that Google uses to sell advertising space to people who want to advertise for a specific keyword.

Google.com/sktool

The 3 prime metrics that we are looking for to find a keyword worth targeting are:

  • volume (how many local monthly searches for this keyword)
  • competition (# of websites advertising against this keyword)
  • commercial value

2. Google Trends

Shows us the amount of people using a keyword search over a particular time. This important because you don’t want to spend time working on SEO for a keyword that is trending downwards and fewer people are searching for the keyword.

3. Google Insights

Gives us a more deep look at search behavior about a keyword. Tells you more insights about a keyword such as where and allows you to make a more informed decision.

Three important concepts to choose the right keyword

1. Volume – the number of people searching on a keyword

2. Competition – what is our competition doing in the marketplace. What clues are they giving to Google. We need to look at the quality and the competition in the marketplace for a keyword. If there is a lot of strong competition for a keyword, then you might want to move on and choose a different keyword. If a lot of people are advertising for a keyword, then it could mean that it has commercial value around the keyword.

3. Market Samurai – eavesdropping on customers and analyze your competition to decide if a keyword is worth going after

WordPress and SEO

So we have put together a list of what we consider to be the best WordPress SEO marketing tools. WordPress is by far the best blogging and CMS tool for SEO and business professionals. One reason is because of the vast number of free plugins that are available. So, take your time to complete the market research and focus on the right keywords to increase traffic with digital marketing for WordPress.

Free WordPress SEO Tools

  • Social Locker (Free Version)
  • WP Social SEO Pro (Free Version)
  • S2 Member (Free Version)
  • WPRobot (Free Version)
  • Thirsty Affiliates (Free)

Successful Tips For Pre-Launch Advertising of Your Website

Billions of pages on the internet – That’s your competition. Think about your daily visits; which sites you visit on a regular basis to get your news, stock quotes and other information. My guess is that your regular visits can be counted on your fingertips. So how do you, the entrepreneur help people navigate to the newest addition to the web? The latest and greatest site that everyone should know about but nobody is visiting due to poor visibility? There are several key maneuvers you can make to market your new site and attract people to your site even before it’s ready for launch.

  • Blog, Blog and More Blog – The first successful maneuver is to create blogs based on as many facets of your business as possible. Keep an inventory in an Excel spreadsheet of your blog locations, usernames and passwords. It’s important to try a few different blogs and see which ones pop up on the major search engines the fastest. Those are the ones you’ll want to focus your efforts on the soonest. Even if you’ve never heard of a blog, it may be spidered regularly and an important addition to your blog repetoire.
  • Comment, Comment, Comment – Another great way to get your name out there is to use somewhat of a secret way to backlink your website. A backlink is just a link on another person or company’s website. Do a search for blogs related to your product or service. Visit those blogs and post as many free comments as you can. Usually you can add a comment without having it be pre-approved, it just depends on the popularity of the site or personality of the blogger. Make sure your comments are relevant to the blog and only include one link per comment. Sometimes a blog will have several postings that you can comment on. Usually three comments is sufficient per blog.
  • Write, Write, Write – Articles are an important way to not only add credibility to your own personal talents, but it also adds credibility to your website, plus the ever important backlink from a highly spidered source. Write as many articles as you like. Keep them relevant and at around 500 words. This way, people will be more apt to read your article and possibly follow any links you may have included, which at least one should be to your website.
  • Act Larger Than You Are – The great thing about the internet is that you can be a small startup from the couch of your studio apartment in Fresno, California. This doesn’t mean your website has to look like it. If you’re not a great designer, find someone who is. If you’re not a great coder, find someone who is. Put together a team of people who have the same ambition as you and make your new site appear like it’s the Google of your niche. If your site has not launched yet, be sure to have a pre-launch registration page available and possibly a sign-up for beta testers to make sure your code is tight.

These are just a few examples. I’m sure you have other ideas of your own, but you’ll want to make sure that you do more than just submit your site to search engines. In today’s internet climate, that’s no longer enough.

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